Apocrypha
For the sourcebook of the same title, see Hunter Apocrypha. Apocrypha is book of prophecies and visions written by the Visionary hunter Fyodor. It was published by Anchorite Press as a reproduction of Fyodor's handwritten notes, compiled and annotated by the Hermit Violin99. Fyodor writes in somewhat disjointed fashion, skipping between tales of his journeys and the history of hunters which he has constructed. The latter is the result of his research into the visions he is sent by the "Shining Ones" (his name for the Messengers), drawing widely on mythologies from around the globe. A summary of his story follows: Once, humanity lived in a Golden Time, its soul united, Light and Dark. A cataclysm occurred, however, splitting the two; the Dark half became the monsters of the world, while humans remained the Light - neither whole or satisfied. Heroes, chosen by the gods, arose at the end of the Golden Time who fought against and imprisoned the monsters. Their prison was not perfect, however, and the Dark Ones exerted their influence on mankind to cause conflict and suffering, eventually escaping and hiding among humans to manipulate them directly. Now, the hunters - direct though degenerate descendants of the original heroes of Light - have again been chosen by the gods to hunt the Dark Ones. But time is running out, for another cataclysm is coming - and some of the signs of its arrival have already come to pass. The chronicles of his life reveal Fyodor to be ruthless, cold and calculating, with a mindset not dissimilar to the Wayward. He travels across the world, hunting, observing and analysing both monsters and his fellow hunters, and admits to committing murder several times. His style is detached and such details are less important to him than his message. Violin99's notes show he is sympathetic to Fyodor's views; his annotations seek to "clarify" Fyodor's message, justify his brutal actions and make excuses for any contradictions that exist in the text. Many take a combative tone with the reader, and he refuses to explain certain sections to readers since he judges those who cannot decipher the meaning themselves to be unworthy of the knowledge. The books ends with Fyodor's five prophesied signs of the impending end of the world, some of which are judged by Violin to have already come to pass. Apocrypha and Exalted The story told through Fyodor's visions is one of the stronger in-game elements supporting a link between the world of Exalted and the World of Darkness. While the cataclysm splitting humans from monsters is a much better fit for the history of the World of Darkness (e.g. the Shattering that separated Earth from the Dreaming, or the Sundering which separated it from the Shadowlands, etc.), the "heroes chosen by the gods" could quite easily refer to the Exalted (particularly the Solars, who are seen as the Exalted analogue of the Imbued), also known as Chosen, who were Exalted by the gods of Creation. The Exalted, however, were created to fight their first battle against the Primordial monsters, which occurred before they established the "Golden Time" of the First Age of Man. The story does fits better with the return of the Solars in the Age of Sorrows, when they primarily battle the many other Exalted (who are counterparts of the supernatural monsters of the modern World of Darkness). In any case, the mythologies of each setting never match up clearly enough to make the connection explicit. References * Category:Hunter: The Reckoning glossary